I’m a huge science fiction fan, but realized I haven’t read a lot of those works considered classics or greats. I decided to remedy that, and found a list online of the Top 100 Science Fiction Books. The list is determined by vote from sci-fi fans online, so it may change over time. I am going off the order of the list as it was when I first saw it. Each book will receive a grade between F and A+ as well as very brief comments. I’m interested to read what you think about these books as well. There will be very minor spoilers in some of these.
66. Sphere by Michael Crichton (1987) Grade: C-
Apparently I can’t count and in my last post, going 5 at a time, I included this one. Oops, now it gets to be here twice.
“It’s not nearly as polished as The Andromeda Strain, and its core premise isn’t as strong as Jurassic Park‘s. What’s left is an interesting idea that seemed to me to get less and less entertaining as it went along. I had higher hopes for this one, to be honest. The payoff at the end is fairly low compared to Crichton’s other works, and because of this some of the flaws in his writing style are more distracting. Let’s not forget an over-defensive caricature of a female scientist, which may have been a rather poor attempt at introducing a pro-woman narrative into the plot (it didn’t work out). The biggest problem with the book is that it seems to get progressively less wonder-filled and devolve into a rather simple thriller. Not what I have come to expect from Crichton.”
67. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) Grade: A-
“I thought I had the whole book figured out fairly early on, but Bester got me big on this one at a number of points. I didn’t figure out the ‘truth’ at the center of the novel until the very last pages. I am the kind of person who doesn’t really try to figure things out because I enjoy the development, so that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a masterful manipulation of the plot, but I think it speaks well of the strength of Bester’s storytelling. Does he rely on some pretty outdated psychology? Absolutely, but that doesn’t take much away from the overall enjoyment of the work. Reading this list has clearly taught me that science fiction + mystery = awesome.”
68. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (2000) Grade: A
“Reynolds has managed to construct one of those rare books that manages to truly convey the scale of a space opera while not losing itself. The disparate plots come together in a satisfying way, and the sheer bigness of it is delicious. Throw in a healthy dose of alien archaeology and this is a book I will remember for a while. In fact, some time ago I read just the opening scene at a book store, but couldn’t remember what book it was from until I picked this one up from the library for this list. That openig scene, with its hidden archaeological secrets, had stuck with me for perhaps a decade or more. Now that I’ve read the whole novel, I’m pleased to say it stands up well.”
69. The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein (1956) Grade: C+
“It doesn’t reach the greatness of some of his other works, nor does it hit the depths of some of his misses. It’s a competent, somewhat tongue-in-cheek story about time travel and corporate baddies. I enjoyed it not so much for the end product as for the clear fun that was had on the journey. It’s silly, but not so silly as to put you off. A worthy read, but not a great one.”
70. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison (1961) Grade: B+
“A classic campy adventure novel, The Stainless Steel Rat hits on just about all the points one expects from its time period and genre. It is clearly referential to the time in which it was written, and has some backward views represented therein. It is also a constant stream of action and adventure that left me feeling almost exhausted afterwards. A fun read.”
Links
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
Reading through the [Alleged] Best 100 Science Fiction Books– Check out more posts in this series as I continue.
SDG.
Eclectic Theist 